The Noise Next Door’s Comedy Lock In (Guest): Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 2005
Always Be Comedy: The Tommyfield pub, Kennington, London, 2018
Rich Wilson: Death Becomes Him: Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh, 2019
Up The Creek Saturday Night Comedy: Up The Creek, Greenwich, London, 2019
Live at Piccadilly: The Glasshouse pub, Soho, London, 2020
Boatshow Comedy Virtual Quiz: May 2020 to July 2020
#SaveLiveComedy: (Show 1): The Clapham Grand, London: Online: 2020
#SaveLiveComedy: (Show 3): The Clapham Grand, London: Online: 2020
Always Be Comedy Online: Online: 2020
Live @ Limehouse 5: The Star of The East pub, London, 2020
Vix Leyton’s Comedy Arcade: Online: 2020
Comedy Kiss (2 shows): Radicals and Victuallers, Islington, London, 2020
Neon Flamingo Cutting Room Floor Live Online at The Cavendish Arms: Online: 2021
Vix Leyton’s Comedy Arcade Live at The Camden Fringe: The Water Rats pub, Islington, London, 2021
Comedy Kiss: Radicals and Victuallers, Islington, London, 2021
West End Comedy Club: Upstairs at The Covent Garden Social Club, Great Newport Street, London, 2022
Vix Leyton’s Comedy Arcade: Underbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh, 2022
Comedy Arcade Live: Leicester Comedy Festival 2023 – The Big Difference, Leicester, 2023
Hastings Comedy Festival 2023: Oscars, St Leonards, Hastings, 2023
London based comic Rich Wilson was a guest on The Noise Next Door’s Comedy Lock-In at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2005. As with every guest, he performed a short routine full of ludicrous stories about disappointing events in his life before taking part in some of the sketches that The Noise Next Door produce at their show.
Wilson appeared at Always Be Comedy in October 2018. He had some absurd stories about everyday life that were extremely funny and endearing. His delivery was like he was chatting to his best friend in a pub and this stylish ability with effortless timing easily won over the audience who seemed to really appreciate his humour.
I saw his solo show Death Becomes Him at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2019. As I walked into the room, Wilson was sat on stage flicking through a magazine, greeting everyone as they came in and made them feel part of the show. The show itself was a very funny account of mistakes he has made, and lessons learned from early school life to present day. He was extremely easy to listen to and understand as well as being remarkably honest. I felt much happier for seeing the show and once finished, he stood at the door and shook everyone’s hand including mine personally thanking the audience as they left. To round the year off. I also saw Wilson at the famous Up The Creek comedy club in December 2019 and again headline at Live at Piccadilly in February 2020 where he headlined and was brilliantly funny with a twenty-minute set about different jobs he has had other than a comedian that was hysterical.
In 2020, the world was hit by an unknown virus of epidemic proportions and the population had to remain at home in lockdown. Many comedians provided online comedy shows and two of the hardest working are Wilson and Jayde Adams. I would like to thank them both for all the entertainment given online as they have delivered music shows, podcasts (The link for Wilson’s brilliant podcast is https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/insane-in-the-men-brain/id1454275103), interviews and quizzes. Every Friday from May to July, Wilson was the excellent host of the Boatshow Comedy Virtual Quiz which was a general knowledge quiz that has featured Zoe Lyons, Hal Cruttenden (twice), Rosie Jones, Helen Bauer, Matt Richardson, Maisie Adam and Thanyia Moore as weekly guests. Both Wilson and Adams are wonderful company and a delight to listen to and watch online.
Wilson was a guest act for #SaveLiveComedy Show 1 which was streamed live from the Clapham Grand in London and I watched online in August 2020 as part of the Zoom audience. Although the sound was muted, I was delighted that he spotted me laughing so hard at his accomplished set. He appeared again for Show 3 this time hosting with Jayde Adams. Wilson was also a very adept, sincere, and funny guest compere for Always Be Comedy Online in August 2020. He also headlined Live @ Limehouse in September 2020 effortlessly in control of an enthused crowd and appeared for Vix Leyton’s podcast Comedy Arcade in October 2020.
Wilson’s opening monologue when he guested at the Comedy Kiss Launch Night in November 2020 was inspired. He ambled on to the stage, looked at a member of the audience and said, ‘do you know?’. Then another and another. He was referring to the confusion of the strange pandemic year that was 2020. It was done with such comedic force that the audience couldn’t help but laugh and he was away with his routine which was brilliantly funny. He appeared again for Comedy Kiss in December 2020 with new material and was great again.
Wilson appeared for Neon Flamingo Cutting Room Floor Live Online at The Cavendish Arms that I watched in April 2021. He made the art of comedy seem effortless and was absolutely hilarious.
Whilst being a guest for Vix Leyton’s Comedy Arcade Live at The Camden Fringe in August 2021, Wilson was asked by fellow guest comedian Robin Ince if he could incorporate the character, Rumpelstiltskin into a comedy routine and sure enough when I watched Wilson headline a few days later at Comedy Kiss, he did so, taking command of the room and being effortlessly funny.
He appeared for the West End Comedy Club in June 2022 previewing his new show You Could Have Had It So Much Better and proved that, regardless the size of the audience, he had funny bones and was born to be a comedian.
The comedian was a resident team captain for Vix Leyton’s Comedy Arcade at the Edinburgh Fringe 2022 and again as a guest for Comedy Arcade Live at the Leicester Comedy Festival in February 2023. He also performed a brilliant hour of new material involving ageing and the possibility of becoming a dad again late in life for the Hastings Comedy Festival in June 2023. Wilson’s sharp and frank delivery to hysterical anecdotes proved a hit with the audiences.
Wilson is an exceptionally warm, funny, extremely likeable, and engaging comedian and I look forward to seeing more of his live comedy in the future.